My cat, Garby, is getting his balls removed today. I feel for him. I was wondering if anyone here had any tips on how to make his recovery process as comfortable as possible.
I was asked by the vet if I thought that he would bite or nip at his stitches, I replied that he most likely would. She then prescribed that I buy a cone and keep it on him for 10 days, (this will be a happy Halloween for Garby if that’s the case.) The thing is, I’m not sure if he WILL lick or pull on his stitches, and I wonder what the vet would have said if I said that I didn’t think he would. I’ll be able to monitor him almost completely for the next few days. Is the cone always necessary? I want to be on the safe side, but I would hate to keep that thing on my cat if it’s not needed.
Any handy tricks on keeping the damn cone on? I know from experience that the thing’s probably going to be lying on the floor within a few hours.
Is there any topical cream I can apply to make that area heel faster, or make the area less prone to infection or irritation? Or is this a no-no?
I would say get the cone. You won’t be able to monitor him completely; you’ll sleep, sometimes he’ll be out of your sight, you won’t be on him like glue for 10 days.
Perhaps you can take it off for a few minutes every day so the cat has some opportunity to wash himself. Be really careful when the cat is washing and wave him away from anything that might even be stiches pulling.
Bottom line: The cat may hate the cone but he’ll hate whatever happens if he pulls the stiches a lot more. Think of how painful and nasty that could get.
Thank you for the reply! I will make sure that he’s COMPLETLY monitored when/if the cone comes off. I got this done at a place for low income pet owners, and I just want to make sure the whole thing is as good as it can be for my cat. There’s was hardly any time to ask the vet these questions when I came in, since there were about 20 people in there, and I fear it will be the same when I pick him up. So that’s why I’m asking you folks.
Keep the litter box absolutely impeccably clean. If you can, scoop after every time he uses it. This will reduce the risk of infection at the incision site, or so said my vet.
We brought my Boston Terrier home after spaying. We were given strict instructions not to let her/it jump. We get home and in less than 10 minutes she tried to jump on the sofa. Happened so quick that we couldn’t react. She didn’t make it onto the sofa. We checked her belly. The stitches had pulled a little, but thankfully ok. Gave my wife and I a scare.
She didn’t try that stunt again that day. That incision must of been pretty sore.
The last puppy I adopted (11 weeks old) had just been spayed. She wasn’t stitched, the incision was closed with surgical glue. I don’t know how common this is. I was cautioned to not let her run and jump too much for the next couple of weeks. The good part was there was no need to take her to the vet to have stitches removed.
Cat neuters are SO not a big deal. I can’t imagine keeping the poor guy in a cone for 10 days over it. The incision is about 1cm, each ball is popped through and tied off. The whole thing takes less than 5 minutes, and leaves a very small wound. There are no stitches, just a little glue. When I worked for a vet we didn’t do the cone for spay/neuters, and never had a problem with it.
Perhaps you could ask how long it should take the heal. Even if you don’t have much time with the vet, just that question should be ok. Then you can do it for a few days and see if the cat is tempted to mess with it.
Old school, we’d swap the box filler from litter to old torn newspaper strips until the chance of grit getting in to cause infection had passed. About a week after the last blood spots, switch back to litter.
I reassured my cattledog that he could tell others that he was hung like a horse before the removal. That seemed to work for him. He’s real self-confident.
On the subject of cones, it probably varies by cat, but ours totally freaked out when we put one on him. He ran around the house faster than I realized he could run, bashing into things, basically doing anything he could to get away from it. We took mercy on him, and got him a blow-up collar. He’s a big cat, and the medium dog size worked well for him. He tolerated that much better than the cone.
One of my cats hated the very idea of the cone. A “friend” blew some marijuana smoke in the cat’s face and he seemed to mellow out a great deal. Worked well except the cat kept begging for more.
There very likely won’t be any sutures. If, and that’s a big if, he has any issue, it usually arises a few days (2-3) after the neuter, when the scab starts to heal and itch. Can’t hurt to have a collar handy just in case, but I wouldn’t start out with one if he were my cat. And getting it to stay on depends on the e-collar, there are many different ones out there, some are made to snap down tight enough, you should be able to get a finger comfortably between the collar and neck, but when you try to pull it over his ears it won’t come off. Some have tabs for tying with gauze, and pretty much the same rule, like fitting a dog collar.
